Additive manufacturing techniques and processes generally involve the buildup of one or more materials, e.g., by layering, to make a net or near net shape (NNS) object, in contrast to subtractive manufacturing methods. Though “additive manufacturing” is an industry standard term (ASTM F2792), additive manufacturing encompasses various manufacturing and prototyping techniques known under a variety of names, including, e.g., freeform fabrication, 3D printing, rapid prototyping/tooling, etc. Additive manufacturing techniques may be used to fabricate simple or complex components from a wide variety of materials. For example, a freestanding object may be fabricated from a computer-aided design (CAD) model.
A particular type of additive manufacturing is more commonly known as 3D printing. One such process, commonly referred to as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), comprises a process of melting a thin layer of a flowable material (e.g., a thermoplastic material), and applying this material in layers to produce a final part. This is commonly accomplished by passing a continuous, thin filament of thermoplastic material through a heated nozzle, which melts the thermoplastic material and applies it to the structure being printed, building up the structure. The heated material is applied to the existing structure in thin layers, melting and fusing with the existing material to produce a solid finished product.
The filament used in the aforementioned process is generally produced using a plastic extruder, which may be comprised of a specially designed steel screw rotating inside a heated steel barrel. Thermoplastic material in the form of small pellets is introduced into one end of the rotating screw. Friction from the rotating screw, combined with heat from the barrel, softens the plastic, which may be then forced under pressure through a small opening in a die attached to the front of the extruder barrel. This extrudes a string of material, which may be cooled and coiled up for use in the 3D printer.
Melting a thin filament of material in order to 3D print an item may be a very slow process, which may only be suitable for producing relatively small items or a limited number of items. As a result, the melted filament approach to 3D printing may be too slow for the manufacture of large items or a larger number of items. However, 3D printing using molten thermoplastic materials offers advantages for the manufacture of large items or a large number of items.
A common method of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, generally includes forming and extruding a bead of flowable material (e.g., molten thermoplastic), applying the bead of material in a strata of layers to form a facsimile of an article, and machining such facsimile to produce an end product. Such a process is generally achieved by means of an extruder mounted on a computer numeric controlled (CNC) machine with controlled motion along at least the x-, y-, and z-axes. In some cases, the flowable material, such as, e.g., molten thermoplastic material, may be infused with a reinforcing material (e.g., strands of fiber or other suitable material or combination of materials) to enhance the material's strength.
The flowable material, while generally hot and pliable, may be deposited upon a substrate (e.g., a mold), pressed down or otherwise flattened to some extent, and/or leveled to a consistent thickness, preferably by means of a compression roller mechanism. The compression roller may be mounted in or on a rotatable carrier, which may be operable to maintain the roller in an orientation tangential, e.g., perpendicular, to the deposited material (e.g., bead or beads of thermoplastic material). The flattening process may aid in fusing a new layer of the flowable material to the previously deposited layer of the flowable material. In some instances, an oscillating plate may be used to flatten the bead of flowable material to a desired thickness, thus effecting fusion to the previously deposited layer of flowable material. The deposition process may be repeated so that successive layers of flowable material are deposited upon an existing layer to build up and manufacture a desired component structure. When executed properly, the new layer of flowable material may be deposited at a temperature sufficient enough to allow the new layer of such material to melt and fuse with a previously deposited layer, thus producing a solid part.
In some instances, the process of 3D-printing a part, which may utilize a large print bead to achieve an accurate final size and shape, may involve a two-step process. This two-step process, commonly referred to as near-net-shape, may begin by printing a part to a size slightly larger than needed, then machining, milling, or routing the part to the final size and shape. The additional time required to trim the part to final size may be compensated for by the faster printing process.
In the practice of the aforementioned additive manufacturing processes, some disadvantages have been encountered. In 3D printing, when a program encounters a corner or a substantial directional change in the tool path, a row of deposited material may become distorted when transitioning into a new direction. This occurs because by design, a bead compression roller trails slightly behind an extrusion (or deposition) nozzle. When executing a corner with little or no radius, a compression roller carrier-bracket must rotate behind the deposition (or extrusion) nozzle, in order to align itself in the new direction. Because of the offset between the roller and the nozzle, the compression roller rotates completely off of the deposited bead, and is now positioned completely off the bead. When the extrusion nozzle begins to move in the new direction, the roller re-engages the bead surface, pushing the soft material of the adjacent, newly deposited bead inward, distorting the shape of the newly compressed bead. This inward pulling of the material deforms the part, which may render the part unusable. At the present time, CNC additive manufacturing tool-path generating software may not have the capability of compensating for such distortion in a newly deposited bead of flowable material.
It is therefore desirable to provide systems and methods for compensating for material distortion in additive manufacturing operations.